Formation and Politicisation of Russian Crime at the Turn of the XIX–XX Centuries

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of formation of organised crime in pre-revolutionary Russia in the context of political, socio-economic, moral and ideological transformations of the turn of the XIX — early XX centuries. The author analyses the reasons for the surge of criminal activity in this period, the specifics of the thieves’ world and its priorities, the process of organisational formation of criminal communities, their “rules of the game” and hierarchy. The question of the interaction between “criminal” and “political”, their tactical and strategic alliances, the influence of the atmosphere of ideocracy on the politicisation of the criminal element in the last decades of the Russian Empire is studied separately.